


One day I woke up and I found the invader

by EternalSinner



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Attempted Suicide, Confessions of love, Crimson Flower AU, Edeleth, F/F, Female My Unit | Byleth, Kissing, Little bit of song fic, byleth to the rescue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-16
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-17 23:35:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29480037
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EternalSinner/pseuds/EternalSinner
Summary: Bit by bit corruption weaves its way into the Emperor's court, making her increasingly disillusioned over her plans to free and unite Fodlan as her own power is leached from underneath her with every step she takes.But Edelgard was always alone, and always the pragmatist, so with no other choices left she takes matters into her own hand for one final time, taking all the power she has with her into the ocean.
Relationships: Edelgard von Hresvelg/My Unit | Byleth
Comments: 4
Kudos: 39





	One day I woke up and I found the invader

**Author's Note:**

> I often connect songs to characters because my still is connecting dots that aren't there. So here I am using Bella Ciao.  
> I only knew of the Spanish reggae version but found the original Italian a while back. They all sound cheery except for the Version Lenta, which I wrote this to.
> 
> Either way, it's an old freedom fighter song from Italy where against fascism and well, I can't say I'm proud I used an old war song for an anime video game character who gets accused of fascism by quite a few people, so best not actually relate it to her.  
> I just wanted to write it from her own, opposite perspective as she becomes disillusioned.  
> Then again, La Casa de Papel used it for a hip bank heist so it's not like others haven't desecrated it, for commercial purposes even.

_One morning I woke up,_

_Goodbye my Beautiful._

_One morning I woke up,_

_And I found the invader_

The crown atop her head is lighter than usual, maybe because she'd let her hair down for the first time since long. It feels freeing in a way. The waves breaking at her knees have all her attention as she takes another tentative step. How beautiful, how terrifying.

She feels the tears on her cheek before she realizes she’s crying. It’s the first time in years she’s crying, she realizes.

And it has to be out of self-pity of all things.

But still she can’t help think the salt of her tears will mingle well with the salt of the ocean and she instantly feels angry with herself for thinking such a thing.

Forcefully she reminds herself she’s not here to feel bad for herself.

She’s not here to make amends either, nor to find a solution.

Edelgard is only here to take herself out of this cursed equation.

It hurts to admit she’s become the problem, the puppet Emperor she so fiercely hated her father for having become. For so long she had fought to remain in control of herself and had been burning with determination to be the difference he couldn’t be and she had sacrificed everything for it.

Sacrificed everyone.

And now it was time to sacrifice herself.

After the Church’s power had been reduced, it was going to be the Agarthans, she was going to forcibly drag them from the shadows and expose their cruelty, weeding out the corruption and truly let the people be free to decide their own path. But they had anticipated her actions more than she had anticipated theirs. They were everywhere, stopping her attempts to uncover them at every turn and making her do their bidding with each passing day. At first it had been small things she had to give up. A compromise here, an action against her own morals there, all to keep herself in power and keep them at bay.

Each time she had told herself that a little evil didn’t outweigh the good she was going to do, was already doing, but bit by bit they had been corrupting her vision.

The Emperor was more powerful than ever, reigning over Fodlan with ruthless pragmatism.

But Edelgard had long since lost any control over what the Emperor was doing.

_Oh partisan take me away,_

_Goodbye my Beautiful._

_Oh partisan take me away,_

_I'm feeling like dying._

The small secluded beach is private property of the Hresvelg line, so technically she isn’t even dying free from herself. But she couldn’t risk being seen by her people. The rocks hide her well from sight and none is to enter without permission.

Of course it had to be water, the one thing she had always fear without a good reason.

Well, there had been a reason she never learned how to swim, it would make this much easier. An escape she’d always have at hand, especially with Enbarr being mostly surrounded by the ocean as it was.

Edelgard had always thought she’d either break before she could even start her rebellion or never break at all.

At worst she would have died in the middle of the war. She never expected she’d break in the long aftermath of it but here she was, over two years after the last time she killed with her axe and no longer seeing the light she had been fighting for all those years.

In hindsight it had been falling in love that had done her in, it had kept her painfully aware of her own heart at all times.

The first steps into the water are easy, the water, warmed by the summer sun, remains shallow for so long it’s almost embarrassing, but then she slows down again until she completely stills as fresh tears fall from her eyes again.

She doesn’t want to die, but she also no longer has anything to live for.

Fiercely she wishes she could have at least told Byleth in person, or at least apologized properly, but the letter will have to do, along with her assured freedom.

For nearly two years the so-called vessel of the Goddess had been living in custody of the Empire and Edelgard in all her power didn’t have the political influence to free her. Oh how she had tried.

But she knew that if the Emperor fell that Byleth could be granted freedom, Hubert had promised her he would see to it.

That was the entire point wasn’t it? Not just for Byleth but for her people, who don’t know just how corrupt her Empire has become, who still think she’s reigning supreme as their savior.

Still? If she is honest with herself she never was the savior she believed herself to be in all her naivety. Swinging her axe had been the easiest part, the death that followed the second easiest. The hardest had been the politics and charades day after day which had drained her, disillusioned her from their earliest days and finally broke her in their last.

As a soft sigh escapes her lips as she eases her nerves and forces herself to take another step.

It’s just water, it’s not that terrifying. It’s just another battle, another eye to eye with death.

In a way it’s a relief she’s ending matters herself, at least it means she’s dying free and not by the hands of someone else as she always thought it would end.

It means it was her own choice, after everything that happened.

For months now she has been seizing as much power back, working in the shadows and away from the people to do so, making the Agarthans think she’s being much more obedient lately while they give her title after title, exclusive permission after permission, always reminding her who is in charge.

But what if the thing they control slips from their grasp and out of this world?

If the Emperor falls a lot of the power the Agarthans have poured into her and her title will go down with her in one single blow. Hubert and everyone she entrusted with her fractured power will take it from there. With no remaining family Adrestia will have to reinvent itself and it will be a battle between Edelgard’s true followers and the Agarthans to determine who gets to pick up the pieces.

All she needs to do is keep walking and die. Edelgard has walked darker paths than that, had _much_ darker thoughts than that as well.

In four days it would have been her twenty-sixth birthday. The Agarthans had plans for the royal birthday.

Edelgard hadn’t been able to stomach them. Just another nail in her coffin, but it had turned out to be the final one needed.

_And if I die as a partisan,_

_You must bury me,_

_Under the shadow of a wonderful flower._

Byleth…

Is she still in love? She can’t tell anymore, she’s been so numb these past two years that even when Byleth returned to her voluntary, claiming she was there to serve the Empire, Edelgard didn’t know what she was feeling.

Still Edelgard hopes she is, dying while in love sounds a little less terrifying and maybe it makes her slightly less of a puppet and more a human.

She had held Byleth’s hand once, back as a student. Just for a little while. She had bravely held onto it after her teacher had helped her up and Byleth had smiled at her with such adoration Edelgard’s heart had hammered in her chest so hard it had hurt for the scarce few minutes they had walked like that.

Now the memory makes her smile, yet the sudden wave of emotion makes her cry out as well, her shoulders heaving as sobs bubble up in her throat.

Ah, she supposes she’s still in love then.

She hasn’t seen Byleth these past months, not more than a passing glance. When her professor came to her in the middle of warm freely letting herself be captured, it had been a major step in to win and while Edelgard couldn’t free her afterwards she had seen to it that Byleth’s imprisonment could hardly be called that anymore.

Only the most luxurious chambers for her former teacher with hours a day she could leave it under supervision. She attended council meetings, was seen at parties and on rare occasions she was allowed to leave the palace.

Edelgard knew for certain that Byleth could have escaped every single day she was held she had been in Enbarr if she had so wanted.

But she had stayed, always saying Enbarr was where she wanted to be and that Edelgard might need her –for her skills, for the divine power clinging to her… just her, even when Edelgard always insisted she didn’t.

That had been a lie of course, she had been clinging to the hope she could free Byleth without consequences and admit to her how she had wanted to need her. Byleth’s very presence in Enbarr alone had been comforting, though also terrifying what with how the Agarthans could have used her as more leverage over Edelgard had they found out how much Edelgard cared.

Would she have caved in and done even more things against her own ethics, against her people, if it meant Byleth had stayed safe and unaware?

No, she doesn’t think she would have, she would have taken the pain and pushed it aside like everything else in her life before continuing on the pad she was on.

Even now she’s only walking into the ocean out of duty.

Oh, how she wishes she was different.

_One day I woke up,_

_And I found the invader._

_This is the flower of the partisan_

_Who died for freedom._

“Goodbye, my light.”

With the water is almost at her shoulders she thought she was almost there, that soon she’d be in so deep panic would overtake her.

Another step, another lungful of air.

In hindsight she couldn’t say for the life of her why she didn’t hear the loud splashing of water behind her before she heard the voice, maybe she’d been too self-absorbed to listen, maybe it just had been the sound of the waves drowning out the sounds.

“ _Edelgard!”_

On instinct she turns around and when she’s greeted with that familiar face and cobalt hair she has been longing to see her first thought is she hadn’t been fast enough.

The second is that Byleth isn’t _stopping_.

A moment later the woman crashes into her, though with impressive dexterity she grabs Edelgard by the wrist and subsequently uses the momentum of her force and turns so she’s dragging the Emperor roughly back to shore.

Edelgard manages to stumble along for a few awkward steps, yelling and coughing after a mouthful of water, before losing balance and falling forward, taking Byleth down along with her.

“Byleth, _wait._ I’m drowning!” she coughs in fear as she flails around. “Stop, _please_. I’m drowning!”

“You’re _not_ ,” comes the hard, angry voice of Byleth. “You’re on your knees and the water doesn’t reach your above your chest.”

Once the words register Edelgard realizes she indeed feels solid ground underneath her legs and with some effort she manages to subdue her panic. “Oh.” She feels her cheeks go red, but other, much more potent emotions overtake any embarrassment she might have felt for that.

“How dare you!” Byleth cries out as she grabs Edelgard by the shoulders and shakes her. “How could you… without telling me,” she continues as tears form in her eyes.

Edelgard doesn’t dare look at her, instead gazing at the gently moving water in the small space between them. “How are you here?” she asks quietly instead of answering.

“Hubert let me go.”

That does cause Edelgard to dare meet Byleth’s piercing glare for a moment. “Hubert? I didn’t think he had found my note yet...”

“Note?!” Byleth repeats angrily. “That explains why he was so shocked, you didn’t even tell him.”

“I did,” Edelgard tries to defend herself. “We had thoroughly discussed this, I just hadn’t told him I had planned it today.”

Byleth breaks into sobs as she hangs her head. “Why?” she presses again with another softer shake of Edelgard’s shoulder, feeling more desperate than before.

“I… my teacher, _Byleth,”_ Edelgard stammers and looks over her shoulder towards the vast ocean behind her. The one thing she couldn’t possibly win from, she couldn’t even swim after all. “I have to,” she says as she places a hand on that of Byleth. The faint warmth alone is so addicting, makes her want to stay with all her passion. “It’s the only way, I have to free the people. I have to weaken those in control.”

“No,” Byleth tells her, agony lacing her voice. Feverishly she grabs Edelgard’s hand and brings it to her lips, kissing the top of it before speaking. “I came back for you didn’t I?” she says as she places another kiss on her hand. “Why didn’t you make use of that?” Another kiss. “Why won’t you let me help?” Another. “Why don’t you let me in?” Now truly crying, Byleth strains herself to speak through her tears. “Why must you always do everything alone?”

“Byleth…”

“Why won’t you let me love you?”

Edelgard freezes. “What?” Her voice is high and breathless.

Byleth looks up to meet her eyes and Edelgard swallows when she sees the emotion in them. “I came back for you,” she repeats. “I know what the people see me as and I knew I was a threat to you so I came willingly.” Again she kisses Edelgard’s hand. “I don’t care about any of that, I care about you. I just didn’t want to be a threat to you any longer.”

“You love me?” A part of Edelgard is screaming at her she has a duty to fulfill, a role as emperor to play but her heartbeat is drumming in her ears and she hardly dares to say the words out loud, because the rest of her is screaming that this is more important, that this is something to _live_ for.

Byleth just laughs and looks at Edelgard as more tears well up in her eyes. “Shouldn’t that be obvious by now?” she smiles through her tears.

Edelgard forgets about the water, doesn’t even feel it anymore, and forgets about anything that isn’t the woman in front of her altogether. Byleth just looks different all of a sudden, as if Edelgard is finally allowing herself to see her in the way she’s been wanting to for so _incredibly_ long.

Still she shakes her head. “It has to be me,” she insists. “I don’t want to use you,” she says in a low voice and wind a sense of finality. Her mind is reeling and death is farther from her mind than it has been in months now that she has something –someone- she wants to _live_ for, but she _cannot_ be that selfish, she cannot live so that others may die. It’s just one life, it’s just her born at the wrong moment and in the wrong family.

It’s just her.

“If I die the Empire will be weakened enough that the people can seize power back,” she tries to explain. “You don’t know what it’s like. “You don’t know how much corruption has infiltrated my court. They’re doing the same thing to me as they did to my father. If I… If I love you they’ll hurt you.”

“I can defend myself,” Byleth insists. “And what about you? They’re hurting you, Hubert has been telling me about them when you started isolating yourself from everyone. They’re been manipulating and threatening you, and now they’ve driven you to _this.”_ Her voice is hoarse and rough from crying as she speaks. _“_ Why can’t I protect you? Why must you _always_ do everything alone?”

“I… No one else can do it,” Edelgard says softly.

“ _Wrong_ ,” Byleth tells her harshly, shaking Edelgard’s shoulders again but this time lightly so, with more sorrow than the anger and worry she had in her before. “Hubert begged me to find you, Ferdinand is talking to the public as we speak, Dorothea screamed at me to run and your other friends were in panic as well. Edelgard I’ve never ran so hard in my life, I love you,” Byleth says in one breath and is now panting to catch herself.

The words hit harder than Edelgard can take and fresh tears well up in her eyes. “They know,” she sobs. The thought is just too much to bear and unexpectedly embarrassing. It’s the fact that she failed that makes matters worse.

“Don’t feel bad,” Byleth murmurs as she draws her in for an embrace. “We’re here for you. We’ll get you out of this, I promise.”

Edelgard doesn’t believe for a second Byleth has any idea of how to get her out of this situation, she spend months deliberately getting into it even deeper after all, but still she pours all of her trust into the other woman’s words.

If Byleth fails Edelgard will still die loved and suddenly she thinks dying alone is the most horrible thing that could happen to her. “Byleth,” she murmurs reverently as she buries her face in the crook of her neck. “ _Byleth.”_

She’s loved.

Not just by the woman holding her but with a start she realizes the people in her life are more than just allies, they’re her friends. She has people who love her. She _isn’t_ alone but she kept herself alone.

“I love you,” she says softly, completely in a daze as her lips brush over Byleth’s neck.

A shiver runs through the woman before she stills completely.

Edelgard freezes too before jolting back. “I’m sorry,” she stammers in panic. “I shouldn’t have…”

Byleth closes in on her and places a soft kiss on her forehead. “Don’t be,” she tells her as she presses her forehead against the same spot. “Can I kiss you,” she says with a need in her voice and her lips already so achingly close all Edelgard can do is nod feverishly.

Byleth wastes no time and lips tasting of salt –both the tears and the sea- press against her own. Despite all the emotion coursing through Byleth, through the both of them, the kiss is gentle, though intense for both of them. Byleth takes the lead and it works to reassure Edelgard, giving her the confidence that this is _real_ and not some trick of the mind.

She whimpers when Byleth’s tongue grazes over her lips, causing Byleth to deepen the kiss as she gently asks for entrance with her tongue.

Edelgard loses herself in the sensations and all her remaining thought are about Byleth, about how this is _really_ happening.

 _Byleth,_ the word swirls in her head and creates a permanent space for itself there, her old teacher etching out a space in Edelgard’s heart which had always been reserved for her, though Edelgard never expected she could allow herself to love.

_Byleth. Byleth. Byleth…_

She’s so in love.

An exhilarating kind of happiness overcomes her and in all her emotion she laughs against Byleth’s mouth.

“I love you,” she smiles as Byleth breaks away with a curious expression, though quickly breaking into a smile herself. “I love you,” Edelgard repeats. “You and all my friends.” She succumbs to a sob but forces herself to go on. “Ever since… since I had been held in those dungeons I was alone, I was never able to rely on anyone, only on Hubert and only when it came to our plan,” she explains. “I couldn’t do it, no be alone. It was too terrifying.” She looks her old teacher in the eyes, her heart skipping a beat at the tender love she finds there.

“What if you had rejected me, or left me once you discovered what kind of person I really was deep down… what if you had gotten killed.” She shivers at the thought. “I would have been crushed and I wouldn’t have the strength left to continue my goals for the future.”

Those fears still plague her mind and it might take months, if not years to rid herself of them. She wants to trust, so badly. But how?

“But you’ve succeeded in those goals, magnificently so,” Byleth points out, pressing a hand against Edelgard’s cheek, which the touch-starved Emperor immediately leans again with a sigh.

“Yes, but…” she trails of. The shame of having seen her own Empire crumble from within just too much for her to speak off.

“New goals arose,” Byleth finishes for her. “Another one that’s a much bigger threat than the ex-Archbishop ever was or ever will be, and they –the Agarthans- they are closing in on you… have already it seems.”

“Yes,” Edelgard cries as fresh tears beginning to fall. The burden of the truth is too heavy for her to bear. “I’ve failed you, everyone. I thought that if I took as much power to myself, made myself the tallest tree and got struck by lightning then the hole left in my court would cause my reign to crumble. They still needed me to approve of their plans, willingly or now… Byleth I don’t know what to do,” she sobs. “They’re _everywhere_ , even in my nightmares.”

Byleth puts both her hands on Edelgard’s cheeks now, placing a soft kiss on her lips before looking in her eyes.

“How about we start another war?” she says far too easily for such a phrase to be uttered.

“Just… weed out the corruption bit by bit, person by person. ….You know all their names and true identities don’t you?” Byleth says with a reassuring expression and a small smile adorning her lips.

As for Edelgard? There are countless dangers for so many people on the path Byleth is suggesting but… swinging her axe had always been so much easier than the mess she had gotten herself in _._

And promptly she breaks into relieved laughter as Byleth embraces her tightly.

“I trust you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading.
> 
> I really like Edelgard and I think her story is really tragic, but I can't really believe in her meritocracy other than that the game says 'it works!' Especially as the first thing she does is appoint all her friends, I didn't know friendship was a merit El. 
> 
> But the way I see it is that she was purposely the only one left alive as her uncle could infiltrate court that way and a completely alone ten year old El was completely dependent on him and his friends for information for years, of course they groomed the rage an determination in her, no child could have that much emotional self-sustainability and autonomy.


End file.
